London to offer free school meals to all primary pupils for a year

[Eastie77Returns]

Reported in the Guardian and apparently will begin in September.

Two questions spring to mind: a) why is this only happening in London and b) wouldn’t it make more sense to target this and increase the ridiculous limit for free dinners (households with an income above £7k do not qualify) rather than giving every single child, including those from affluent families, free meals?

My sons school already do this as its in Islington where all primary school child receive free meals, from what he says virtually every child in his class has a school dinner (he often takes a packup due to a very wide range of allergies).

It’s good to see it being rolled out further.

I would actually pay more council tax to see this happen in our area. Although our council tax is already going up anyway, they just don’t get enough from
central government.

Dh is a higher rate tax payer, but he always says he would agree to the higher rate increasing if the extra was ring fenced for NHS and poverty. Won’t happen under a Tory Government though 🙁

Surely there’s a sweet spot here that looks after hungry children while still promoting business and the people running them.

Yes, but the government isn't taking it and so London is finding a workaround that means hungry kids get fed.

I'm sure rich parents can continue to send in fancy packed lunches, or donate to their kid's school to top up funding.

I’m not entirely sure why you think council tax and business rates are the same thing. My sons school borough has had universal free school meals for years, far from shit food.

@Simonjt I don't, no need to be passive aggressive.

Someone up thread said the money had come from council tax. I'm single living alone and can't afford to have kids, so it just hits hard! Random ideas rather than good, long-term, well thought out policy.

Absolutely brilliant. What a huge relief for so many parents. This goes to show how shockingly rare it is to find a politician who actually cares that children are going hungry. Thank you so much to Sadiq Khan and the London councils.

In my experience school catering normally runs at a loss so this initiative may be detrimental to school budgets, especially if there is a drop in parents applying for FSM so reducing the amount of pupil premium received by the school

Such a privileged comment, the most worst off children won't benefit from supermarket vouchers because their parents won't use that to make them lunch 🤦‍♀️ (and of course there will be savings from school lunches vs. supermarket vouchers by virtue of economies of scale)

Excellent, let's hope other areas follow. Even those doing okay on paper may well be finding things tricky t the moment with everything costing more, knowing they will all get a proper meal will be a relief. Children who've had a proper meal also focus and learn better at school.

The government should also automate FSM status to eligible families so that they don't have to apply for it. I mean, they know the income situation of those families and the benefits they are entitled to already.

The poster who says about supermarket vouchers said the same thing yesterday while also saying “I hate food banks”.

So one doesn’t want to take too much notice.

if this initiative results in fewer children going hungry, I’m happy. More can be done and perhaps it could spread as an idea, but the threshold for FSM is woefully low and in London, with the cost of rent and house prices as well as the wider COL crisis, I’m sure this will make a huge difference to children in poverty in London.

I like the idea. I hope its funded properly as the quality of school meals has reduced a lot over the last 10 years as the fubds havent kept up with the cost of producing a nutritious meal.

What a complete waste of money. Kitchens won’t be able to cope, they won’t be able to find enough staff to work on not much more than minimum wage.
The food is dreadful and most of it ends up in the bins. So not help for the kids and bad for the environment.
However Mr Khan gets his name in the papers which I assume is the point of it.

I love the idea of this but my only worry is that it would mean that less families would feel the need to apply for the means tested free school meals scheme which gives the school additional moneys to spend on children who are adversely impacted by the effects of poverty (pupil premium). It's so important that schools receive this money to redress the balance but I know that when it was brought in for children in KS1 to have free school meals in England, it meant the number applying for the means tested scheme went down costing schools thousands. If this can be overcome some how then I'd be all for it everywhere x

I think this is a bold and brilliant move from Sadiq Kahn, just like the ULEZ which was inconvenient to me when it came in centrally but had literally made the air taste nicer.

My youngest had free school meals throughout infant school and they were of the same quality as all the rest (and as an infant school that's not because of the staff used by the older kids meals).

SK is actually putting children first unlike anyone else with the power to do so in this country.

The comments on here highlight the differing social attitudes between Scotland and England.

another hair-brained idea!

Hare-brained. As in the animal.

I’m all for ULEZ as it gets cars off the road and on flip side if other money goes to dc like this or in other ways that’s good

what do you mean "run at a loss"? its run by catering firms that make a profit

They could easily do this via the school census which is completed three times a year.

food banks are exactly the same!

A huge amount of busyness and man hours, premises and energy, and the least efficient way of actually getting hungry people fed

Its already a success in several London Boroughs, the borough my son attends school in has had this in place since 2009. Kitchens coping well, staffed, good food, little waste (his school publish waste figures and contact individual parents if a child is frequently not eating).

@Nimbostratus100 the cost to the schools of these external contracts is more than the income they receive.

They could easily do this via the school census which is completed three times a year.

The school census is just data though so the school only have that information based on who has applied already. Families move off and on the FSM element of it so it would put the responsibility on schools to continually have to gather that information which would be difficult to do

A huge amount of busyness and man hours, premises and energy, and the least efficient way of actually getting hungry people fed

Go on. What’s the most efficient way, in the current economic climate and with this Government in place? Food banks are pretty efficient operations, using donated goods, run mostly by volunteers and from premises that charge relatively little for their use.
I agree that there should be no need for food banks - the situation is a disgrace in a rich, developed country like the UK. However, I’ll remember to donate a few items when I go to the supermarket today